Christ Church at Grove Farm

Gideon Mangus: My name is Gideon Mangus, I'm the High School Ministry Director here at Christ Church at Grove Farm. I'm so thankful that you are here. To the kids in the room who are typically down in kids' ministry during the service, we're so happy that you're up here. We are so glad that you are here this morning.

If you're visiting with us today, welcome. We are taking this Sunday morning to rally around and to celebrate the vision that God has given Christ Church to partner with families in raising the next generation to know, love, and walk with Jesus. We want to be a place where families are birthed, strengthened, and sustained through Christ and through His community. We believe in the next generation. We want to be a place that puts time and effort into seeing the Gospel reach and transform kids from birth through 18, and we are so thankful that you're a part of that.

I'm thankful to be in a place that believes in that. Our vision is to partner with families in raising the next generation to know, love, and walk with Jesus. Is that something that you can get behind this morning? One thing I love about this church is that we do not see kids' ministry or youth ministry as babysitting, but we see it as reaching people with the Gospel—that the same God who moves in us and moves in the world, moves in them.

So with that, I want to invite you to come to VBS, pray about the camps, and send kids to camp. There are a lot of ways to get involved. I'll invite you to this, too: we have three tables in the commons following the service. Would you come out and see if there's an opportunity that God is inviting you into to partner with the family ministries here at Christ Church? Will you pray with me?

Father, we come before your throne in the precious name of Jesus Christ, the name above all names. The name that every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. As we come in this morning, would you bring back to our hearts and our minds the moment when we first put our faith in that name? The moment when the light broke in? The moment when it made sense, even if we couldn't put it into words? The moment that we sang, "I surrender all to Jesus"?

If there's any in this room this morning who have yet to have that moment, I pray that by Your Spirit, You would stir in their hearts. Lord, I pray that You would take my lips and You would speak through them. That You would take our minds and You would think through them. That You would take our wills and You would bend them to Your own. And that You would take our hearts, God, and You would set them on fire with love for You. That You would not just stir us this morning, Lord, but You would change us. I pray this all in the precious name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Well, this morning is Family Sunday. As we're preparing for this, I was thinking this week about my family growing up. In my family, I'm one of six kids: four boys and two girls, all born in a ten-year span of each other. So my dad is very gray, very young. Pray for them. We actually have a family celebration. My youngest brother, Malakai, just proposed to his girlfriend last night, and they said yes. So it's a big weekend in the Mangus household. He only gave me five bucks to say that, so that was easy money.

As I was thinking about family and growing up in my family, if you grew up with siblings, especially if you are an older sibling, there comes a point in every childhood where inevitably you find yourself in a situation where you have to use the classic older sibling catchphrase: "Don't tell Mom." Don't tell Mom. It was typically brought out only when you played too rough, and you're like, "Please stop crying. Do not tell Mom."

I remember we would play this game growing up. It didn't have a name and it probably should have been banned, but we would be on a trampoline and one person would have a helmet on. The only goal of the game was to be the last person headbutted off the trampoline. There were no winners, only losers. Inevitably, there would be a point where somebody starts crying, "I'm going to tell Mom," and you had to all come around and say, "Don't tell Mom."

As I was thinking about that this week, the thing that was fascinating to me is that nobody had to teach us to do that. Nobody had to sit us down as a group and say, "Okay, now, when you mess up and when you do something wrong, make sure that you cover it up and hide it." Nobody had to say that to us. Nobody had to tell us that when we know a consequence is coming, our first move should be to try to hide the evidence.

But isn't that so true? Even in those moments as children, our first instinct was to hide, to cover up, to try to explain away and minimize and pretend like there is no problem. I was thinking about that this week because the reality of the situation is that is not an impulse that we just grow out of. Rather, that is something that lingers and makes it into our everyday lives and even our walk with God.

As we pick up in this series this morning that Pastor Craig started last week called "Life Together," where we're talking about being created for relationship and being created for deep connections, that mindset to hide is an obstacle in doing life together. That tendency to cover up is an obstacle in having deep, life-changing community. This morning, we're going to look to answer the question, "Why?" We're going to pick up in Genesis chapter three. Maxwell, thank you so much for reading that. You did such a good job, man.

Maxwell: The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, "Did God really say that you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?" "Of course we may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden," the woman replied. "It is only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, 'You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.'"

"You won't die!" the serpent replied. "God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil." The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and she ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

At that moment, their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.

Gideon Mangus: This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. In these verses, we have the story of where it all went wrong: the source of all of our pain, frustration, and problems that have plagued the human race since this point. When I was a freshman in college at Geneva, we had an Old Testament survey class. One of the discussions we were having was about the Fall. We're talking about how the conflict that we experience, the problems that we experience and we see in this world, all root back to this moment and this pull of rebellion and disobedience.

As we're discussing this, a girl in the class raises her hand and she goes, "You know, if I was in the garden..." and immediately we're like, "Whoa there." A collective sigh. She continues, "If I was in the garden, I wouldn't have eaten the fruit. You're telling me that out of all the fruit, they eat the one fruit that they weren't allowed to eat?" In the class, we were all kind of rolling our eyes.

But I remember the professor did something amazing. He didn't dismiss the comment immediately. In fact, he took her seriously and he looked her in the eyes and he said, "You eat of that fruit every single day." In that moment, he explained something that I hadn't fully caught, which is that this story is not just the story of how sin entered a perfect world and led to brokenness and corruption. It is that.

But it is also a picture and a depiction of how sin invades our hearts and our lives and leads to pain and brokenness and cycles of sin and shame. It is a story that shows how sin, crafty and sneaky, tries to weasel its way into our hearts. Once it is there, it tries to keep us from going to the only one and the only things that can actually deal with the issue.

So what I want to invite us to do this morning is to not remove ourselves from this story, but instead to see it as a mirror and a reflection of our own hearts and our own lives. Because if we are honest this morning, this is not just Adam and Eve's story; it's ours. This is not just a good history lesson or a creative way to explain where evil comes from. This is a deep and a compelling look at how sin enters, distorts, corrupts, domineers, and clings on to human beings.

How we go from intimacy to isolation. How we go from walking with God to hiding in the bushes. From joy-filled paradise to pointing the fingers and playing the blame game. This is not just Adam and Eve's story. This is in every person, in every marriage, in every friendship, in every family. It's in every single one of us. How do we go from intimacy to isolation? How do we go from walking with God to hiding in the bushes?

I believe Genesis three actually gives us the answer to that. It actually gives us a really good picture of what happens in our hearts and lives when sin comes in and what actually leads to pretending. So I want to put up a picture of what happens in this story and just study it with us together because it is so vital to understand how we respond and why we respond that way when sin and disobedience come in. We're going to call this the "Sin Shame Spiral." Can you put that up? The Sin Shame Spiral.

This is how we go from intimacy to isolation. In this story, it looks like this: distrust and disordered love lead to sin and disobedience. Sin and disobedience lead to shame. Shame leads to isolation and fear, which manifest themselves as hiding and blame. This is the spiral that we go through when sin enters our hearts. I want to give a brief sketch of this right now. Before Adam and Eve disobey, come these two things: distrust and disordered love.

Sin and Satan will always attack your love of and your trust of God. The attack is always this: Is God telling the truth, and is what He is saying actually worth following? Notice what the serpent said. He said, "Did God really say?" casting doubt on the Word of God. "And you will not certainly die," completely denying the Word of God. You see, the attack of the serpent here is to not just get Eve to question God's Word, but to actually question God Himself.

The attack of the serpent is not just to get Eve to question God's Word; it is to get her to question the heart and the character of God Himself. Maybe this God isn't actually for me. Maybe this God isn't actually loving. Maybe this God is in reality lying and withholding. Maybe His whole game is to keep from me the things which are actually good, which are actually fun, which are actually important and filling. Maybe His whole thing is to simply keep me beat down and under His thumb, controlled.

That He delights in keeping from me some good or some pleasure or some joy or delight or happiness that is rightfully mine. The attack here is this: not just to question God's Word, but to question His motives, His character, who He is. Distrust. The second attack is like it; it's an attack on her desire. Genesis 3:6 says, "The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted some of the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it."

The move here is from distrust to disordered love or desire. Sin preys on desire. When I was reading this, I never realized that I had always assumed this fruit looked better than the other ones in the garden. That this tree had fruit that was special and beautiful and much better looking than all the other ones in the garden, and so that's part of the pull for Eve. But as I was reading through Genesis, that's not the case.

Genesis 2:9 says this: "The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food." So this isn't some special type of fruit that looked way better than everything else in the garden. It wasn't that God's keeping for Himself the stuff that's really delicious and really good. The problem with Eve wasn't her assessment of the fruit. It was good for food. It was pleasing to the eye. What was wrong was the way that she wanted it.

You see, Eve wanted what it could give her at the expense of what God had commanded her. Eve wanted what that fruit offered at the expense of the God who made her. John Piper says this: "The essence of sin is preferring anything more than God." That the root of sin is a love problem. It is a heart problem. How many times is that true for us? That in the heat of temptation, the question is this: What love will win out? Is it my love of self, the love of pleasure, the love of wealth or leisure, getting what I want, or is it the love of God?

Distrust and disordered love lead to disobedience and sin. Adam and Eve, they take the fruit and they eat it. They do the very thing they were commanded not to do. They fall and they fail. As they eat the fruit, their eyes are opened, and as their eyes are opened, that moment of clarity sets in. As that sets in, something else that they didn't expect comes in. A thing which is a common companion for our experience of life, but something that is completely foreign and utterly terrifying to them: shame.

Shame comes in. Genesis 3:7: "At that moment, their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness." In this moment, as their eyes are opened, shame like a truck hits them. The gut feeling of, "I am guilty and I know it." We know that moment all too well. We know that voice, we know that feeling. We know the voice that comes in after sin and after disobedience to convict us of what we already know is true: that we are guilty, that we have done wrong, that we are not who we ought to be, that our conscience itself convicts us. Shame.

As they're sitting in the weight of that, as they're sitting in the depth of that feeling, it's at this point that Adam and Eve come to the second crossroads in the story. The first crossroads was whether or not to eat the fruit. The second crossroads is what in the world they do now. What in the world do I do now? Now that I'm sitting with this feeling, how do I handle this weight? How do I handle the shame that comes in because I know the truth about myself?

And what's their response? Their response is to grab the nearest leaves they can and put together a makeshift covering, and then to hide in the bushes, hoping God won't notice. That as the weight of sin sets in, their first response is to hide and to cover, to hide from one another and to hide from God. It's the same response we have. "Don't tell Mom." The first humans, when faced with the weight of guilt and shame, seek to find comfort and solace in a fig leaf.

I want to express something about the fig leaf. It's so interesting that out of all the fruit that the Bible doesn't name in the garden, it specifically names that they covered themselves with a fig leaf. There's something really interesting that happens when a fig leaf comes into contact with human skin. Fig leaves have a milky white sap, and this sap contains a compound I'm not going to pretend to know how to pronounce. You can look it up.

Whenever that compound gets on human skin and is put in the sunlight, it will trigger a phototoxic reaction known as phytophotodermatitis. What happens then is that it creates an itching, burning rash on our skin. What you see in Adam and Eve is that as they're faced with shame, the first thing they do is let me try to cover up and hide. In their attempts to cover and hide and pretend like everything is okay and nothing is wrong, it only makes the problem worse.

As I was reading that this week about the truth of a fig leaf, the hair on my neck is standing up because I'm like, God, that is so true for us, too. That as our first response when we're hit with that is, "Okay, how do I hide? How do I cover up? How do I put a smile on my face?" And the reality of the situation is it doesn't heal or solve the problem; it only makes it progress. For some of us this morning, our response to sin and shame is to find the nearest fig leaf.

That as we're trying to handle the weight and the hurt and the pain by hiding and covering and pretending, smiling, hoping nobody notices as there's a bullet hole in our chest bleeding, saying it's all going to be okay. Some of us, our response is to grab a fig leaf. There's a fig leaf of denial, pretending like nothing is wrong. There's a fig leaf of performance, thinking that if I could just be enough or do enough or serve enough or make enough money or provide enough, maybe that'll cancel out the weight of shame.

There's a fig leaf of blame, trying to look for everybody else as the problem, even though I know it's in my heart. There's a fig leaf of religion, going through the spiritual motions, hoping that activity will cover what only grace can cleanse. The picture we get in Genesis three is that the first humans' response to sin and shame was self-salvation. Adam and Eve are left hiding in the bushes, scratching in their fig leaves.

But you know what's good about this story? What's good about the story is that God does not let them stay there. What's good about the story is that God came searching. As God walked through the garden, He came looking and calling and confronting and comforting. He was not satisfied to leave them in the mess of their own making. He was not satisfied to leave them scratching in the fig leaves.

No, He called them out and He called them in and He called them to Himself. Yes, with God searching, came consequences. Sin is not a trivial thing that can be swept under the rug. But with the consequences also came God's comfort. Look at verse 21. After God has expounded on the consequence of sin in their lives, the Bible says this: "The Lord God then made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife." God took their fig leaves and He gave them fur coats.

God took their feeble attempt to cover an issue that they could not manage. Even in the midst of their punishment and even in the midst of their consequence, He made a covering and provision for them. There is something there even at the beginning about the character and nature of God which is so beautiful and humbling and mind-boggling: that He is a God who makes provision for His people. That even here in the garden, in the height of the cosmic injustice that a creation would rebel against the Creator, when Adam and Eve could not cover themselves, God made a covering for them.

There's a crossroads here for the Christian and for us this morning: that you can either allow shame to drive you into isolation and denial and blaming, or you can allow it to drive you to the foot of the cross. There's a reminder here for us that we have not just been given animal skins; we have been covered and clothed in the precious blood of Jesus Christ. That the spotless Lamb was sacrificed on our behalf. That we now wear robes of His righteousness, which are unstainable and unshakable.

That I don't need the fig leaves; I've been clothed in Him. You know, the beauty of the Gospel is this: not that we get better at hiding, but that we become so convinced of the grace and the goodness of God that we no longer need to. It is that God, I know what You say about me, and I can now deal with the shameful things in my heart in the safety of Your grace and Your goodness.

As you read this story, one of the greatest tragedies of the Fall is that Adam and Eve ran for the forest, not the Father. What do we do with this? What do we do with this on Family Sunday? I have two things quick because I'm out of time. First one is this: I want to talk to all the kids in the room. Kids, if you're like, "Why is this guy yelling?" I don't know, lock in for one second. For all the kids in the room, there's a truth in this story that I want to tell you.

It is that whenever sin, whenever you mess up, whenever you get in a situation where you have made a mess and there's sin and disobedience and you look around and you get this feeling of, "Okay, how do I hide this? How do I make sure nobody finds out? How do I make sure I bury this deep down?" run to God. Run to your family. Run to the people who love you. One of the biggest lies of Satan is this: that the sin is too big, the situation too embarrassing, the problem too messy for anyone to handle it.

The moment you feel like hiding is the moment you run to God and to your family, to your mom, dad, aunt, uncle, grandpa, grandma, to your youth leader. The moment you feel like hiding is the moment you run to the Father. For the parents in the room, I was thinking about this as somebody who is not a parent yet, but I've worked with teenagers and middle schoolers and high schoolers for seven years now and I see this. This is what I want to say to you from this message.

When your kid messes up, and they will mess up—they will fall into the very thing that you warned them every day not to do—they will fall into the problem. There will be a time in your life with your child that the problem will be bigger than bee stings and scraped knees. When that moment happens, be a parent that reflects the heart of God in this instance. He did not deny Adam and Eve's sin; He did not ignore the consequence, but He also did not abandon them to it.

He pursued them. He came looking for them. He met their shame with truth and grace, conviction and comfort. My prayer for the families of Christ Church is that we would have homes and households which, whenever kids get into trouble, their first thought is this: "I need my mom or my dad. I need my aunt, or I need my family because I know that they will help me through the problem." The heart of God here, you think of the Prodigal Son, the father gets up and runs to him.

For anyone this morning who's wearing fig leaves, who's walked into this place carrying the weight of shame and sin, pretending like everything's fine even though you know it's not, the invitation is this: to come to the Father, to come to the foot of the cross, to accept the covering that He has provided, to trade in a fig leaf, not for a fur coat, for the spotless blood of a Lamb.

For some people, as we pray just between you and God, lay that down at His feet again. For others, it might look like I need to tell an accountability partner, a family member, a parent, or I need to come forward for prayer afterwards. Here's the invitation of this: it is to lay down the fig leaves. It's to accept what Jesus has already done and to live in the grace and the joy and the freedom of that. I'm going to pray. As we pray, since it is Family Sunday and we're celebrating life together, I'm going to ask that if you're with your family, if you're near your family, we'd pray over one another.

If you're here alone, pray over the person next to you. We are a family of families. Will you pray with me? Lord, we confess that our first instinct is to run and hide, to run to the fig leaves and the bushes. But Lord, You are a God who searches for us, who calls to us, who has made a covering for us. Lord, we pray that we would be a people who, whenever problems arise, whenever messes of our own makings come up, we don't look to run, we look to You and to Your people.

To the church, to the community of believers, to our families. Lord, that we would trade in our fig leaves. We pray this in the precious name of Your Son, Jesus. Amen.